Haggis Hounds, Don’t Rejoice Just Yet: Reports on Ban Being Lifted Were Incorrect

February 2, 2010

Rumors that the ban on haggis may soon be lifted were somewhat premature, it appears. The BBC reported that the U.S. government was planning to relax the ban on Scotland’s national dish, but as it turns out, this was incorrect.

A few days after the original article ran, another (far less circulated) BBC story stated that: “An email came through from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, quashing the good news… A review of the ban on beef and lamb products was underway, but there was no specific time frame for its completion.”

Real haggis is made with the heart, liver, and lung of a sheep, stuffed in a sheep’s stomach. Lung is what makes it illegal to import to the U.S. American versions of haggis exist, but they’re made sans lung, which according to haggis producer Fraser MacGregor of Cockburn’s in Dingwall (the viking capital of Scotland) “isn’t haggis.” Lung makes up 10-15 percent of the recipe, he says.